What is officially surveyed and why? Who carries out the work? Where is the data used and who are the users? The purpose of this portal is to provide answers to these and many other questions about Swiss cadastral surveying.
Among the major tasks of cadastral surveying are the measurement of land parcel boundaries and the maintenance of this data, thereby providing an essential contribution to the security of land ownership rights. Cadastral surveying also provides the basis for virtually all other geographical data, for a wide variety of applications in commerce and industry and for geographical information systems of all kinds. Almost everybody knows and uses city and local street maps and, for building projects, the zoning plan.
About a century ago the Swiss Confederation laid the foundation for cadastral surveying as an integral part of land registration. Surveying and computing techniques, instruments and equipment have all developed enormously over this period. The computer long ago replaced the mechanical calculating machine and drawing pen in surveying and mapping offices; surveying with the support of earth-orbiting satellites is becoming ever more commonplace, data management is no longer a matter of map drawers but of digital information systems and data is distributed by means of the Internet.
Over all these years the close cooperation between the public - confederation, cantons and municipalities - and private sectors has proven to be reliable and beneficial for all concerned with cadastral surveying. Today this long-standing cooperation between government and the private sector has a new name: “public-private partnership”.
The tasks of the licensed surveyor have changed radically over the years. In addition to his or her traditional expert knowledge of surveying and measurement techniques, information and communication technology, law and project management are all of crucial importance to the surveyor today. Today’s surveying experts are rightly described as “geographical data managers” or as “the trustees of land and property”. Their training is wideranging, challenging and forward-looking, whether through an apprenticeship or by way of university studies leading to an academic degree.